Let’s face it–Dropbox isn’t the most complicated business or technology. It’s a relatively simple storage app that keeps your files in the cloud and synchronizes them across your various devices. It still uses Amazon S3 for storage, for goodness sake! If it were just being valued on the product, Dropbox would be hard-pressed to raise a Series A, let alone a $5 billion+ expansion/liquidity round.

Dropbox’s reported round checks in at nearly 60X revenues, and that doesn’t even account for the fact that A) it is an estimate from an investor, and B) that represents forward revenues, not trailing revenues.

Again, not bad for a simple “backup” company.

In a world in which Apple is the most valuable corporation, and companies like Dropbox earn super-premium multiples, my conclusion is that the most powerful way to build economic value is by developing products that a) deliver an outstanding user experience, b) convince people to pay a premium, and c) generate massive usage.

Hmmm, when I put it that way, maybe Dropbox’s value isn’t so surprising!

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VP Enterprise Marketing for PBworks, first investor in and previously interim CEO of Ustream.TV. Chris is an active angel investor and the founder and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association (HBSTECH). Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His personal blogs are Adventures in Capitalism and Ask the Harvard MBA.